Man Takes Pregnancy Test, Finds Out He Has Cancer

Sometimes acting on a silly whim can change the course of your life in unimaginable ways. When one man noticed his ex-girlfriend had left a pregnancy test in his apartment, he decided to take it. To his amused bewilderment, he tested positive.

A friend, known only by his online handle "CappnPoopdeck," turned his experience into a "rage" comic and posted it to the immensely popular community site Reddit, where things took an unexpected turn. A silly incident quickly turned serious as concerned Redditors urged the poster to look into the possibility of testicular cancer, which produces the same hormone in men that pregnancy does in women.

The poster passed their advice on to his friend, who saw a doctor and discovered that he did, indeed, have a tiny tumor. The man who made the original comic posted a follow-up, providing an update and thanking the Reddit community for helping his friend.

The internet is typically thought of as a place that holds at least a little peril for its users. Stories abound of e-bullying, misplaced and recklessly targeted internet vigilantism, and worse. Reddit itself has been accused of having a problematic relationship with women. So it is heartwarming, in light of such commonplace dangers, to see that same anonymous mass doing good, maybe even saving a life.

In fact, it’s the mainstream press that seem to be causing some anguish this time around. The latest update in the saga of this Redditor and his cancer-positive friend is a complaint about the constant invasiveness of news outlets, who have apparently been swamping the both of them with phone calls and have, in his words, “made his cancer experience a thousand time worse than it needs to be.” If nothing else, though, the media attention means that more men will hear about this unorthodox method of cancer detection, and a bigger spotlight on health issues is never a bad thing.

What do you think of this man's strange road to diagnosis? Do you have any similar wacky medical tales to share? Let us know in the comments.